The future of Origin Energy's $NZ1.9 billion stake in New Zealand's Contact Energy will become clearer this week, with a key electricity contract decision understood to have been resolved over the weekend.

The future of Origin Energy's $NZ1.9 billion stake in New Zealand's Contact Energy will become clearer this week, with a key electricity contract decision understood to have been resolved over the weekend.

Sources said the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's owners, Rio Tinto and Sumitomo, are expected to announce on Monday that an agreement has been reached with Meridian Energy, which is the smelter's existing electricity supplier.

Sources close to Meridian said it had struck a deal with Rio and that back-to-back agreements had been reached with other gentailers, including Contact.

As revealed by Street Talk, Origin has fielded interest from a number of corporate buyers for its stake in the Kiwi utility. The interested parties include several Asian companies, according to offshore lender sources.

The news comes as brokers including Deutsche Bank continue to pitch for the right to sell down Origin's 53.1 per cent stake to institutional investors, with some suggesting an after-market trade could take place on Monday.

Deutsche has access to New Zealand's biggest adviser network through its 49.9 per cent-owned Craigs Investment Partners, while Macquarie has a long-standing relationship with Origin and could not be counted out of any deal.

But it's beginning to sound a bit like Groundhog Day for those following the situation. Several investment banks were sounding out fund managers last month about their appetite for a sell-down of Origin's Contact stake at circa $NZ4.50 a share, as revealed by Street Talk.

Tiwai's owners have also been talking to other providers, including Mighty River Power, about a possible deal.

"We think there is a reasonable probability that the option is rolled for a further period of time to allow parties including Contact Energy (CEN) to continue to negotiate a potential 172 MW carve-out from the base contract," the analysts told clients on July 27.

Elsewhere, global private equity giant The Riverside Company announced the acquisition of Melbourne-based IPAR Rehabilitation late on Friday, as foreshadowed by Street Talk.

The deal was led by Riverside principal Nick Speer, who joined the firm in May 2014, while Westpac provided debt financing. Herbert Smith Freehills, KPMG and Deloitte were retained for legal, accounting and tax advice.

Riverside has form in the space, having completed some 80 deals in the healthcare sector across the world. "IPAR is a proven business in an expanding market and we're confident that Riverside can help accelerate the company's growth," Speer said.

Finally, Link Group is expected to appoint two joint lead managers in coming days, in addition to Macquarie Capital, for its upcoming float.

Sources said UBS, Citi and Morgan Stanley were well-placed to nab roles after all of the major investment banks pitched last week.

Sources said Hotchkin was in talks with Pepper but was yet to sign a formal agreement.

He finished at Goldman in June where he was an executive director, focusing on credit origination, structuring and distribution. Hotchkin has experience in debt securitisation, which is a key focus for Pepper.

The corporate watchdog has put the major accounting firms on notice about forecasting practices used in prospectus documents for initial public offerings.

The corporate watchdog has put the major accounting firms on notice about forecasting practices used in prospectus documents for initial public offerings.

Street Talk understands the Australian Securities and Investments Commission summoned partners from the big four accounting firms, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and Deloitte, for a meeting last month.

Sources said the discussion focused on IPO prospectuses, with the regulator voicing concerns around pro forma earnings numbers and the methodologies used in the forecasting process.

The news comes as a raft of companies such as Link Group, Global Traffic Network and McGrath Estate Agents are preparing to publicise earnings forecasts ahead of IPO's planned for this year.

It's understood one of the accounting firms suggested the regulator implement more defined and prescriptive rules for determining pro forma numbers.

But other firms would prefer to continue to exercise their professional judgement when determining forecasts.

In June, the recently-listed QMS Media recalled its prospectus under instruction from ASIC.

Even though KPMG had signed off on the document, the regulator had issues with some of the company's earnings forecasts for fiscal year 2016. QMS decide to lodge a new prospectus with earnings forecasts for fiscal year 2015 only.

The incident didn't seem to cause too much concern among investors, as QMS' shares are trading around 30 per cent above their 65¢ issue price.

ASX Announcements

It's 10 days until Commonwealth Bank of Australia boss Ian Narev fronts shareholders to answer the biggest question in capital markets; how will CBA plug an estimated $10 billion capital shortfall by July 1?

It's 10 days until Commonwealth Bank of Australia boss Ian Narev fronts shareholders to answer the biggest question in capital markets; how will CBA plug an estimated $10 billion capital shortfall by July 1?

Fund managers and bankers suspect Narev and his board will be working through the final plans this week, as numbers for the full-year to June 30 start filtering back from auditor PwC.

Each of the investment banks' capital markets and financial institutions group teams have spent plenty of time assessing CBA's options and seeking an opportunity to pitch these to management.

However the silence from the bank – and its rivals – has investment bankers and fund managers suspecting CBA will almost exclusively use its dividend to cover the gap.

Expectations are CBA will increase the discount on its dividend reinvestment plan, which would see it issue more shares to existing shareholders and retain more profits to bolster the balance sheet.

CBA has two full-year dividends to cover the $10 billion gap. Analysts expect the bank to pay out about $3.5 billion on October 1 for the second half of the 2015 financial year, while next year's dividend is expected to be worth about $4.30 a share – or $6.9 billion.

However a DRP solution doesn't necessarily lock investment bankers out of the action. The question for equity capital markets teams is whether CBA seeks to underwrite the DRP.

While there are only small fees in underwriting a DRP, the quantum counts on the all-important ECM league tables. UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch have been active in underwriting bank DRPs over the past 12-months, getting in the market for Westpac Banking Corp and National Australia Bank, respectively. [UBS ran CBA's last major equity raising – a $2 billion institutional placement – in 2008.]

Should CBA wish to be more effusive in plugging the capital gap, analysts expect it would be looking at its wealth management division.

Citi reckons the bank's Colonial First State Global Asset Management platform could be worth $4.2 billion, while it also valued CBA's Comminsure life insurance business at $3.3 billion and Sovereign NZ life insurance unit at $1.5 billion.

Chinese telecommunications services group Enice is considering a run at the ASX boards, in a deal that would give the company an enterprise value of around $125 million.

Chinese telecommunications services group Enice is considering a run at the ASX boards, in a deal that would give the company an enterprise value of around $125 million.

Enice is expected to generate net profit of around $10 million for calendar year 2015 and is believed to be targeting a raising of up to around $50 million.

The company sells distributed antenna systems (DAS) to Chinese carriers and also exports antennas into the United States via NASDAQ-listed PCTel. DAS refers to a network of small antennas that are installed inside large buildings to improve telco coverage.

Enice is working with Sydney-based financial advisory firm Investorlink on its listing.

Investorlink has carved out a niche in China-focused transactions and was behind the ASX listings of e-commerce venture eCargo, mobile commerce group 99Wuxian and TTG Fintech in recent years.

But concerns among Australian investors around a lack of transparency and good governance in China has hampered the performance of ASX-listed Chinese companies.

99Wuxian founding chief executive Amalisia Zhang said in May she thought these concerns had weighed on the company's share price and she pledged to spend more time in Australia explaining the company to investors.

99Wuxian's shares closed at 20¢ on Friday, compared with its 2013 IPO price of 40¢.

Ichor converted preference shares to lift its stake in Universal to 29.9 per cent from 18.5 per cent last week. The preference shares were not due to expire for another three years and had been bought for 18¢ a piece, compared to Universal's last closing price 12¢.

Ichor has publicly stated its ambitions to consolidate in South Africa and Universal, worth around $52 million, looks to be a likely target.